I suppose it’s not surprising that you get offered a lot of help when you ask for help in an interesting project. There have been over 20 people offering me help. I recorded 9 songs from Robin Storm yesterday and they were all really good performances but, I didn’t enjoy it. There were no surprises for me except my reaction. Storm didn’t ask me to play with him and might have rebuffed my offer. I knew it would be like that because Storm has been in Bob’s Basement before. I didn’t start this project because I wanted to become a producer. I became a producer because I wanted to perform and have some control over the final product. I’m still constrained by time and deadlines, FCC rules and my limitations in the technical aspects of video editing but, I don’t have sponsors telling me I can’t promote my political point of view. In fact, that’s the whole purpose of Public Access T.V.. One of the people who has expressed an interest the show is a radio host, Judy Stadt. She has this saying on her website; “Freedom is doing what you want, Happiness is doing what you want and enjoying it.” I hope she tells me how to do that.
Music from Bob’s Basement part 1
September 26th, 2009I don’t remember the exact moment or thought I had when I made that call to the cable company to make a local access tv show. It wasn’t obvious to me just how much work it would entail. I soon learned that I was to become a producer. They sent me a kit of 36 pages which included a lot of legalize gobbledygook and technical video jargon of which I had never heard. There was also the camera stuff in which my mac computer doesn’t like the windows based file format my camera produced. After struggling to get the performance right only to discover that I hadn’t turned on the camera and finally converting it to a format that I could put in iMovie without being reminded by an image plastered across my creation stating that win4mac is a trial version I finally got to the point where I was moving video clips and audio clips to a time-line. After days of struggling to get the movie looking and sounding the way I wanted it to I found that iDVD was no picnic either. After 3 weeks of work I finally got my first weekly episode on a DVD and delivered to the cable company. I’m going to have to work faster. I’m also going to have to get a lot more material. There are the songs I wrote and songs in public domain but, most of the stuff I’ve mastered I’m going to need a music synchronization license for.
Producing a TV Show
September 24th, 2009I apologize for taking so long to put up a new blog entry. I’ve been busy trying to produce a local access TV show called ‘Music From Bob’s Basement’. I suppose my newest endeavor could be attributed to mid-life crisis in that I’m exploring unrealized youthful dreams. The cliche of a sports car really doesn’t fit me; though, I have found myself eyeing Chevy 10 vans lately. My parents bought their first TV when I was less than a year old in 1954. I grew up watching TV and I attribute my overweight state as stemming from the anxiety I felt during that 3 month period in my late twenties when I tried going without television. Ironically, I now feel the need to snack when I watch TV which I didn’t before that life altering experience. Maybe, I should go back to eating at the dinner table. It would certainly save on stained shirts but, since I have to eat anyway and my newest endeavor of producing a TV show requires me to study the masters; I might as well accept that I’m probably eating while viewing because of all the food commercials.
Replacing a Battery on an Electric Razor
September 13th, 2009
Electric Razor in Pieces
I’ve had this razor for a lot of years now. It hasn’t gotten a lot of use so, the only thing that went on it is the rechargeable battery. I tried to use it but, the battery was dead. I immediately stuck the recharger into it and planned on using it the next morning. My wife saw it had been charging for a while and dutifully unplugged it. I probably would have gotten another minute or two of use if I used it as soon as it was unplugged but, that happened hours before I wanted to trim my mustache. When I took it apart I figured I would stop at radio shack and pick up whatever battery it used. I was delighted to find that it used a AA battery. I have a lot of them lying around. The orange battery is the original and replacement is to it’s left. I would have put the thing back together immediately except in the process of taking it apart there was this tiny little pointy piece of metal with a spring on it that jumped out from nowhere. I have to figure out where it goes before I’m ready to put those cutting blades next to my face.
Remember Sept. 11, 2001
September 11th, 2009On September 11, 2001 I was driving into work at the Greenburg 12 HS when I heard on the radio that a plane had flown into one of the towers in the World Trade Center. After a few minutes they announced that a second plane hit the other tower. I had a later shift than most of the teachers in this school. I started at 10 and the other teachers started at 7 and when I got there no one was aware of what was happening. I guess I was the one who started the rumor mill going and all anyone had to do to confirm it was turn on a radio or tv. Shortly after that the school went into crisis mode as did every other school in the NY area and everything else for that matter. The bridges were closed which caused a problem with getting the students that were bussed from Queens home. It also meant that my wife couldn’t get home from her job on Long Island. Since I had the late shift my son would be coming home to an empty house from school and would be alone until I got there. My wife would normally arrive a little over an hour later. When my principal asked if there was anyone who needed to leave to deal with problems I took them up on it. When my son’s school bus came and he didn’t get off of it I called the school and talked to someone who didn’t have an answer for me. I went to the school and found out that the students there were asked if there was anyone at home. Of course, my son volunteered that information and they kept him. Eventually they opened the bridge and my wife came home. At the time, we got our tv signal off of a roof antenna. I got a very blurry channel 2 and that was it. We started getting cable again and I became for the first time in my life a flag waving American idiot. I even plastered a flag onto the bumper of my jeep. At least, until Bush announced that he wanted to invade Iraq. That and an idiot kid who wanted to kill all Arabs resulted in the song Kill Alqaeda.
Hotel California
September 2nd, 2009This song lends itself to using the loop station. I haven’t tried using my octave multiplier to add a bass part to the loop but, I hope it will work. I noticed that measure 69 and 70 should outline an e minor chord rather than an F# chord. Just move those 2 measures down a whole step (2 frets) and it will sound a whole lot better. There are probably repeats further on in the piece but, I haven’t looked for them yet.
Rennaissance Festival
August 21st, 2009Yesterday my family dragged me to the renfaire for about the 30th year in a row; hot sun, overpriced food and drink, all these people with their hands out, same old tired jokes, women with their breasts pushed up and mostly exposed(it isn’t all bad). I really enjoyed it when I first started going. I also went to one in Florida and in upstate NY. The one upstate was a lot smaller than the one in Sterling Forrest but, it had the best joust. These guys were really trying to hurt each other. One of the champions got kicked in the head by a horse. He was the bad guy. I wound up in the cheering section for him. The cheerleader (dressed like a Beefeater) described the champion as wandering around the countryside forcefully having his way with young damsels. When I responded, and was followed by others, with a huzzah the cheerleader called us sick. I don’t see why we couldn’t take our role as the bad guy’s cheering section seriously.
Protected: Covers
August 9th, 2009Password for mp3s
August 5th, 2009Bob’s current drummer was the password; it’s not anymore. I realized that since I’m doing a show on cable TV it’s become common knowledge who my current drummer is. If you have a compelling reason to download the files for the BoScoDen CD without going to iTunes or Amazon or any of the other outlets for purchasing the downloads, contact me at bobstone@boscoden.com